


The effects of Isabelle Lightwood's Down World relations on her chance of elevation within the Clave

by megancrtr



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-23
Updated: 2016-06-23
Packaged: 2018-07-16 19:48:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7282276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/megancrtr/pseuds/megancrtr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Why did the Clave choose to appoint Isabelle Lightwood's brother, Alexander, ahead of her as Institute leader in 2015? Isabelle earned better marks throughout her schooling, ranked first for her theoretical defense against insurgences of demons and developed the algorithm used today to predict Down World population movements. Everyone knew she would be wasted as a soldier, and yet, she is only that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The effects of Isabelle Lightwood's Down World relations on her chance of elevation within the Clave

Talloak, Sydney. "The Effects of Isabelle Lightwood's Down World Relations on Her Chance of Elevation within the Clave."  _Reviewing the Clave_  3rd ser. 1.45 (2015): 23-31.  _Reviewing the Clave_. The Free Speakers, 17 Apr. 2015. Web. 23 June 2016.

 

_The effects of Isabelle Lightwood's Down World relations on her chance of elevation within the Clave_

By Sydney Talloak

Isabelle Lightwood grew up as everything a Shadowhunter should be. She was talented with weapons, with hand-to-hand. She was quick on her feet and quick in thought. And she was oh so very attentive to everything, even when she was young. She knew the best way to kill demons, kept detailed thoughts on runology and forensic trends, and, when she was old enough for such things to matter, she could tell you the moment eligible young Shadowhunters went on and off the market. (A gift if there ever was one.)

But then, if Isabelle was such a figure, why did the Clave choose to appoint her brother, Alexander Lightwood, ahead of her as Institute leader in 2015? Isabelle earned better marks throughout her schooling, ranked first for her theoretical defense against insurgences of demons and developed the algorithm used today to predict Down World population movements.

Everyone knew she would be wasted as a soldier, and yet, she is only that.

The Clave passed over her, left her to be swallowed up by patrols for precisely one reason: attentiveness.

Her attentiveness, previously so praised, left a bitter taste in the Clave's mouth after they found that she was particularly attentive to things she should not have been so attentive to.

Brandon Greentree wrote about a particular incident in his diary two years before his death in 2009. He was on his way to the portal to embark on his annual visit to the Seelie Court and to present the Queen with a single rose specially bred in his family's garden, when Isabelle stopped him.

He writes of the incident:

“She took after her mother more than her father, with her sharp eyes and, as I found to my horror, an equally as foul tongue. She appeared in front of me so suddenly that I now suspect she was using an agility rune without supervision. She asked me without any prompting, ‘Why do you keep insulting the Seelies?’ I could do nothing but stare in horror, because-- The very idea! Me and my family insulting the Seelie Queen? Why the audacity. My father and his father before his and his father before his […] had been favorites of the Seelie Queen's for centuries […] and then she went on to say, ‘Never giving them something that will live more than a few days, will never bloom more than a few hours, is insulting.’ Exactly that. Exactly those words. I was horrified that such a promising child could say such a thing! […] And then she spat on the floor and left!” (Greentree 501).

Now, anyone sent on behalf of the Clave to speak business with the Seelie Queen would have known the insult Isabelle referred to. They would have read in _The Cultures of the Nature Folks_ :

"Seelies, unlike the Fairies of Fruit, do not believe in bouquets of bright flowers, finding the whole process barbaric. This should come as no surprise, because […] separating a flower from its plant is akin to murder. In fact, for the Seelies fluent in Floral, Shadowhunter events like weddings and rank ceremonies are highly detested because of the horrified, pained screams which the bouquets emit throughout the entire procession. Instead of bouquets in a Seelie home, Seelies keep large plots of earth that will hold a flowering plant if they so desire one" (Traumhoot 56).

But, because Isabelle was not the Clave's Seelie ambassador, there was no reason for her to know that giving a Seelie a cut flower was highly insulting. In fact, there was supposedly no way for her to have known this at all, because the only copy of _The Cultures of the Nature Folks_ was kept in the Ireland Institute, and Isabelle had never been there. 1

The only way Isabelle could have possibly known how insulting the gift was, was if a Seelie had told her.

This single attentiveness to Seelie culture and the Isabelle’s association with Downworlders would not have been enough for the Clave to pass over promoting Isabelle. Except, that this was not the first time, nor the last, that Isabelle interacted with the Down World outside of the parameters of work.

Now, most Shadowhunters do have a degree of interaction with the Down World, but it is in the way the sun interacts with the Moon, staying in careful opposition so as not to upset the order of things. Isabelle, however, began her fraternization with the Down World at an incredibly young age and did not grow out of her youthful habits. She disrupted the order of the universe, and, because of this, the Clave passed over her in favor of her brother.

Isabelle's association with Downworlders started before that moment in 2007. As far as can be tracked, it started back when she first went to boarding school. Lucilla Leiderluft once compared these first few years of school for any younger Shadowhunter as the equivalent to mundane kindergarten, where children learn to write their name and sing the alphabet (12). However, I must disagree, for kindergarten and all it represents in the mundane world is much too soft a word for Isabella's first year of schooling. Her first year involved learning to throw punches and knives. It involved figuring out how to brand herself without screaming (Biting the tongue or the inside of the cheek are not good coping methods, but teacher Justin Kampfstark said Isabelle did this in the early days (4).) and learning to hold someone's arm tight enough to brand them in return.

Because, unlike many children in New York, Isabelle was growing up during war.

The war against demons was particularly bad throughout her early childhood, up until around 2004. Harry Herze claims the dramatically increased demon activity was due to lingering effects of the Cup, in Valentine Morgenstern's possession from late 1997 until early 1998 (45-50). This included attacks on Idris, previously untouched by demons for almost three centuries. The Clave, unsure of how long the elevated activity would last, implemented training programs far more rigorous than anything that had come before or has yet to come for Shadow World adolescents (Herze 13). Herze further classifies those who spent their early childhood in these times as the "Wary," deriving the name from the generation's constant vigilant mindsets, lasting well into adulthood. 2

It was ironically during this hyper-vigilant period, when demons were the focus of every lesson and conversation, that Isabelle began interacting with the Down World and its inhabitants.

Allegedly, Isabelle befriended the resident pixies, the absurdly named Pleasantwood Clan. The Pleasantwood Clan was new to the woodwork of the school and was then the only Down Worlders permitted on the grounds, for pixies are far better at raising alarms than any warlock ward and have a personality that keeps children on their toes.

In _Miniature Devils: The unscrupulous habits of pixies_ , Traumhoot describes pixies, "as loud as their colors, as devious as the devil and as slimy as any trickster. They do not believe in friendships, and even within their clans they must sleep with one eye open. […] Their unreasonably short lifespan of five years, could be indicative of why the species is quick to laugh at even their worst tricks (usually resulting in death) and why they commonly break pacts and promises within days, if not minutes" (12).

While we do not know the exact circumstances of Isabelle's relationship with the pixies, she was written up thirteen times during her first year for nothing less than stealing steles, students waking up with wet beds when they had not wet themselves and several other misdemeanor offenses suspiciously similar to pixie tricks (Bone City School Records 23). Isabelle served detention only twice for these offenses, as only two of the incidences could be proven as her fault. One of the write-up slips included senseless shrieking at fellow classmate Jacque Evans (Bone City School Records 25).

However, it is likely that Isabelle was not shouting senselessly, but rather talking to him in Clanger, the high-pitched language of pixies. Actually, this is probably more than likely as during her comprehensive final evaluation by the Silent Brothers in 2013, Isabelle was recorded as conversational to fluent in eleven languages: two mundane variants, four demonic languages and five Down World languages--Clanger, Mermur, Bantic, Singsing, and Faety (Final Examination Report 34).

While Isabelle was then after only written up once—This time for breaking curfew in 2011 alongside her brothers—it is my belief that she simply became better at hiding her tricks as she spent more time with the pixies (Bone City School Records 529). For, over the years, there was no shortage of wild appearances of green and blue hair on boys and girls, tied shoelaces, crudely drawn stick figures and lost sweets even after pixie wards were placed around the dorm rooms in 2008. 3

The specifics of the rest of Isabelle's Downworlder relationships are unfortunately much harder to pin down, as they must have happened outside of school grounds. Despite this, we know that during this time she attained at least conversational fluency in Mermur4, Bantic, Croot and Faety, as previously stated.

This suggests that Isabelle spent a considerable amount of time with mermaids, banshees, harpies and Seelies.

The only likely scenario of this is during the educational and mundane integration trips in New York, the only recorded Downworlder rich environment she ever traveled to. Summers and vacations were spent in Idris with her family.

The educational trips began in 2006, with visits to the Down World ghettos as well as to the demons' favorite mundane hunting grounds. It is likely that Isabelle met Seelies for the first time during the former. As Isabelle had successfully completed her first mundane education course in 2005, it is not out of the realm of possibility that Isabelle used MySpace or AIM to keep in touch with Downworlders thereafter (Bone City School Records 678). Furthermore, in 2008, Isabelle and the rest of her class spent a year undercover in the mundane world. While students lived with a Shadowhunter family and were expected to give weekly reports to the school, students had extensive freedom.

According to Luke and Lucy Jamieson, Isabelle's host parents during this time, she kept a number of potted plants in her room and began growing her hair out longer than normally suggested for Shadowhunters.

It reached her waist by the end of the year.

When her host family spoke to her about this, they recall her telling them that, "all the mundane girls were doing it " (Jamieson 45). However, this is contrary to the actual style at the time, which tended towards slightly longer bob cuts with color streaks (Duff 2).

During this year, not only was Isabelle associating with Seelies (note the potted plants instead of cut flowers in her room), but also beginning to interact with mermaids. Not only was her hair style indicative of a mermaid relationship, but Lucy Jamieson said that Isabelle "was always humming something under her breath. Sort of watery and definitely odd. I couldn’t quite place the song, so I asked her about it and she said it was something all the mundane girls were singing […] If there was anything that girl was, it was vague. But not in the ‘worry about her’ kind of way, but the ‘let her do her thing’ way" (Jamieson 67). This was more than likely Isabelle's first attempts at Mermur, a throaty sound that, when correctly spoken, feels more like a memory to the listener than a voice (Traumhoot 20). Obviously, Isabelle had not quite grasped the musical language at the time or Lucy, who had spent her childhood on the Great Lakes, could have identified it.

Despite interviewing countless friends and supervisors of Isabelle, there is little evidence pointing to Isabelle's relationships with either banshees or harpies. However, it is possible that Isabelle met the banshees during the most recent Seelie Massacre, while Isabelle was undergoing her second year of mundane integration in 2012. During this event, lasting about seven hours, the Seelies fought off hundreds of demons and banshees reportedly gathered by the thousands to call in deaths (Todder 23). Isabelle could have been with the Seelies during this time and then have encountered several banshees, somehow keeping in contact with at least one after the attack. 5

However, the _Encyclopedia of Wailers_ writes that any prominent, slow death can attract a banshee as well, meaning Isabelle might not have been at the massacre and rather met a banshee through someone (Hout 99). Or, she could have simply contacted a banshee to read her death, a practice still a common, though frowned upon, for many Shadowhunters.

Harpies, unlike banshees, never freely associate with Shadowhunters and appear only at very specific points in time to very specific Downworlders (Traumhoot 13). This means, that in order for Isabelle to even begin learning Croot, she must have been deep in a Downworlder's confidence not once or twice, but at least three times, as the _Encyclopedia of Wailers_ states that harpies build connection based on threes (32).

However, were these three moments of coincidence or three planned moments?

Either possibility reflects poorly on Isabelle.

Three moments of coincidence means that she spent enormous amounts of time embedded in the Down World society. Three planned moments indicates that Isabelle gained enough Down World knowledge and trust to manipulate situations to suit her need. Either of these require an enormous amount of time invested in learning the Downworlders’ culture and language. This is clearly problematic for the Clave, an institution that purposely stays outside of Down World business unless explicitly called upon.

It is not just the time that Isabelle invested in learning Croot that is problematic for the Clave, it is the time Isabelle invested in learning all the other languages and cultures. Not only did Isabelle probably enjoy her time among Downworlders, continuing to spend time with them, but the Downworlders must have trusted her enough to teach their language to her, as there is no way to learn a Downworlder language without a Downworlder. 6

Regardless of this fact, the Clave might have overlooked her extensive relationship with the Down World if it stopped once she graduated and entered into her Institute's force.

Stevie Lebentod's diary, published only one month before his tragic, but not entirely unexpected, death in early 2016, depicts another Downworlder scene with Isabelle Lightwood. Lebentod was on patrol with Isabelle in 2013, directly after the Institute's acquisition of her. This quote begins as they were about to enter a popular Down World bar:

"Izzy immediately took the lead, even though I was three years older than her (perfect age gap for a relationship, if I do say so myself). The first thing Izzy did when the bouncer looked at us was laugh. But it was different, different than I had ever heard her laugh before. And Izzy was always laughing, listening to a good joke or telling one herself, so I knew what she sounded like. But this… it wasn't quite a laugh I had heard before it was… it was more like a howl! And then I noticed the bouncer was a fucking werewolf! Fucking, what the literal fuck? The bouncer looked at the two of us and then laughed (growled?) in response and let us in. No trouble, no questions. We didn't even have to demand to enter like I had done so many times before, because, fuck, even though they know we only ever try and help, they never want us in their clubs" (Lebentod 122).

What we see here is that Isabelle continued her pursuit of Downworlder relationships even after the end of her education, apparently even picking up enough of the werewolf's language to gain easy admittance into a club. This scene with Isabelle continues as not one or two, but seven Downwolders approach her-- three Seelies, two werewolves, one banshee and two other Downworlders Lebentod failed to classify (125).

"What I also couldn't fucking believe, was that Izzy changed her fucking body with each interaction. I'm not talking about putting on different makeup, I'm talking about her posture. It went from 'gonna fuck up demon' to something soft to something light to something hard to something grounded and whole fuck. Is she an actress or what? She even fucking spat out words in a different language" (Lebentod 126).

Kyle Geistler, a classmate of Isabelle and then peer of hers at the New York Institute, also confirmed Isabelle’s continued involvement with the Downworlders, by commenting on Isabelle's ability in bed during a routine performance check. While the comment was unprofessional and supposedly struck from the record in evaluating Isabelle's performance, his description left no doubt to anyone that Isabelle's relationship with the Downworlders was not only an ongoing situation but also far from professional.

"I have never had such good sex. Ever. Not in my entire life. And it's not like I even feel bad that she didn't want to stay with me, because what she was doing to me was downright Down Worldly, if you catch my drift. I couldn't keep up, because every time she had something new, and, honestly, I'm thankful I'm not dating her and she has lots of friends like me, because I would not have lasted three nights of that. And fuck, she was amazing. […] We have a pact, all of us--Michael, Jackson, Tiffany, Steve, Susan, everyone--to never get mad at Izzy or one another, because we all agree that that girl is making the world a better place by sharing her talents" (Geistler 10).

"Down Worldly" has a connotation that is more than "other worldly," "out of this world," "exceptional," or "freaky in a good way."

In this context, it means that Isabelle developed Downworlder sex techniques.

She probably practiced them on Downworlders after they first performed them on her.

If there is anything more frowned upon than a Shadowhunter willfully integrating themselves into the Down World, it is probably sharing their bed. It indicates a mixture of loyalties, as most of the Shadow World couples sexual acts with love or loyalty. A Shadowhunter who sleeps with Downworlders might put the Down World first. A Shadowhunter sleeping with a Downworlder, especially many Downworlders, implies that the Shadowhunter no longer upholds the core beliefs of the Clave, including, but not limited to: impartiality to Downworld events in order to best serve.

Sometimes, the Clave must impart hard rulings on the Down World, and a Down World sympathizer might hesitate to carry out these necessary orders.

Isabelle's attentiveness to the Down World and all its customs and habits is exactly the reason that the Clave passed over her in favor of her brother, who displays a firm grasp on the accords and has shown exceptional skill in upholding the impartiality to the Down World, even during the 2015 Relocation of Mermaids.

What this tells us, is that even though the Clave highly values Shadowhunters who can speak demon languages, handle a variety of weapons and understand runology, the Clave values impartiality over everything else. This highlights the Clave's devotion to its protection of mundanes and war against demons, doing what it must to attain these goals.

In this way, Isabelle Lightwood's relationship with the Down World destroyed her chance for any elevated positions within the Clave. She cannot be trusted to uphold the Clave’s law of impartiality.

It is very likely that Isabelle will remain a soldier until her death and that the Clave will continue to promote Shadowhunters without ties to Downworlders. Even if Isabelle were to immediately break off all communication with the Down World, the damage has already been done to her image. 

It is unlikely we will ever see her in a position to shine as she did before her Down World ties became public.

 

Syndey Talloak, 2015.

Notes

1The electronic book was not yet invented at the time and has of yet not been adopted by the Clave. Many believe this is because tomes have a certain ambiance of knowledge about them that e-books fail to replicate.

2Many Wary continue to mark themselves with protection and guidance before any hunt, a practice instilled at early childhood and now frowned upon as repeated use of runes lessens their effects. Herze hypothesized that the obsessive use of runes might eventually lead to early deaths of the Wary (59-66).

 3It is quite possible that the pixies learned to circumvent the wards, as was known to happen in the Pixie Rushes in 1030, 1127, 1823, 1999, and 2002 (Traumhoot 21). However, these circumventions normally happened on wards that had been in effect for at least a decade, giving the pixies time to understand and exploit or create weaknesses.

4It is unclear what exactly Silent Brothers consider conversational Mermur, as no other species besides sirens can correctly pronounce it (Traumhoot 23). 

5Banshees, unlike many other Downworlders, have not adopted mundane technology such as the Internet, preferring instead to always meet in person. Their language has no written form, making it hard to keep in contact any other way.  

6Books and dictionaries of Downworder languages simply do not exist. Sometimes this is because the sounds cannot be accurately translated into the written form. Other times, it is because some Downwolders, like mermaids and harpies, do not use books or any written word.

 

Works Cited

 _Bone City School Records_. Bone City: Bone City Educational Center, 1 July 1999. PDF.

 _Bone City School Records_. Bone City: Bone City Educational Center, 1 July 2011. PDF.

 _Bone City School Records_. Bone City: Bone City Educational Center, 1 July 2013. PDF.

 _Final Examination Reports: Class of 2013._ Bone City: Bone City Educational Center, 1 August 2013. PDF.

Greentree, Brandon. Personal Diary. 2008.

Herze, Harry. _Uprising of Demons from 1998 until 2004_. Idris: Idris Tomes, 2010. Print.

Hills Duff. _A comprehensive look at mundane trends during the Wary generation._ New York: Mundane History, 2014. Print.

Hout, Melissa. "Banshees."  _Encylopedia of Wailers_. 1st ed. Vol. 4. Bones: Idris Tomes, 1978. 98-99. Print.

 _Interview for First Year Evaluation of Isabelle Lightwood_ , 10 (2014) (testimony of Kyle Geistler). Print.

 _Isabelle Lightwood Official Transcript._ Bone City: Bone City Educational Center, 23 July 2014. PDF.

"Justin Kampfstark: Isabelle’s Childhood." Personal interview. 4 Aug. 2014.

Leiderluft, Lucilla. _Comprehensive Look at the Differences between Mundane and Magical Childhoods_. 6th ed. Vol. 2. Idris: Idris Tomes, 1987. Print.

Lebentod, Stevie. Personal Diary. 2016. Print.

Lightfair, Melissa. "Harpies."  _Encylopedia of Wailers_. 1st ed. Vol. 4. Bones: Idris Tomes, 1978. 32. Print. 

"Luke and Lucy Jamieson: Isabelle’s Mundane Integration." Personal interview. 10 Aug. 2014.

Todder, Prince. _The Seelie Massacre of 2012_. New York: Moments, 2014. Print.

Traumhoot, Katarina. _The Cultures of the Nature Folks._ Idris: Reference Texts, 1955. Print.

Traumhoot, Katarina. _Miniature Devils: The unscrupulous habits of pixies_. Idris: Reference Texts, 1968. Print.

Traumhoot, Katarina. _Creatures of the Deep_. Idris: Reference Texts, 1970. Print.


End file.
